The Bane Affair

September 1, 2004
In a radical departure from her usual style, Kent launches a new series of fast-moving, earthy, and graphic encounters between the hand-picked members of Hank Smithson's elite paramilitary counterespionage network and their nemesis, Spectra. Christian Bane was Hank's first recruit, and his task is to impersonate a sleazy archcriminal named Peter Deacon with a penchant for kinky sex who has arranged to acquire the backdoor entry to the CIA's data-encryption program from Dr. Wickham Bow, an eccentric genius whose health is failing. Bow's goddaughter, Natasha Gaudet, is also his personal assistant, and Bow instructs her to keep Deacon happy--with predictable consequences. This contemporary romance relies on a host of stereotypical, almost cartoonlike supporting characters (the evil scientific genius, the boy wonder with a crush on the sexy assistant) who alternately shock and amuse with their escapades in a " Mission Impossible-"type scenario, but the premise is well executed and clearly meant to appeal to a wide readership.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)